Crackdown on lonely heart club swindlers

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Fair Trading Minister Reba Meagher is calling for a crackdown on introduction agencies which rip off lonely men seeking female company.

She will today release a discussion paper on the growing matchmaking agency industry, asking the public how it should be regulated.

It follows a series of complaints to the NSW Office of Fair Trading about the activities of rogue operators who are fleecing clients.

"The changing fabric of society, including the lowest marriage rates for the last 100 years and the increase in divorce rates and single households, has helped foster this industry," Ms Meagher said.

"This has seen introduction agencies in NSW double to over 80 within the last 10 years.

"Unfortunately, like any rapidly growing industry, this area has attracted its share of rogues who are damaging the reputation of the good operators by heartlessly taking advantage of vulnerable consumers.

"While Fair Trading received over 120 formal complaints last year about introduction agencies, it is likely there are more people with bad experiences who are reluctant to report it to the authorities."

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Ms Meagher is asking the public whether operators should be licensed and be subject to an industry code of conduct.

In the past three years the Office of Fair Trading has received 288 complaints from disgruntled clients, chiefly over difficulties in obtaining refunds, misleading conduct and high-pressure sales tactics.

In one case, a man was coerced by agency staff into agreeing to pay more than $30,000 to meet a woman who was prepared to go out with him.

Concerned that he could have second thoughts, the agency sent a female staff member with him to a bank while he withdrew the money.